Just before the museum closed for the day one evening in mid-October, I was intrigued to see Professor Mike Parker-Pearson of the Stonehenge Riverside Project deep in conversation with somebody in the café. My curiosity was satiated the following day when watching BBC TV ‘South Today’ during which it was reported that he was due to open a new exhibition at the Stonehenge Visitors Centre, ‘Feast! Food at Stonehenge’, which invites visitors to explore the diet and lifestyle of the people that built Stonehenge; and the culture, rituals and identity of food in prehistory (see photos of reconstructed buildings at Stonehenge, below).

This was the subject of the second part of a SALOG Volunteers social afternoon on Monday 30th October.

On arrival at the Stonehenge Visitors Centre, Volunteers from Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire Museum, English Heritage, the National Trust and Wessex Archaeology were given time to mingle and to enjoy coffee and biscuits before being given a ten minute introduction to the exhibition by the Interpretation Officer, Hannah Brown. We were then allowed to explore the exhibition at leisure.

By way of background, the objective of the Stonehenge Riverside Project was to examine the relationship between the Stonehenge stones and surrounding monuments and features, including the River Avon, Durrington Walls, the Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge, and various burial mounds, and nearby standing stones. The main aim of the project was to test the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a monument dedicated to the dead, whilst Woodhenge & Durrington Walls, two miles away, were monuments to the living and more recently deceased.

It is believed that the builders of Stonehenge settled in nearby Durrington Walls in the 25th century B.C. and excavations of this site have revealed an abundance of food waste, stone tools and pottery, which are thus available for analysis.

From these artifacts, scientists have been able to show that our ancestors were bringing animals from as far away as Scotland, some 500 miles away, suggesting that Stonehenge was an important site known right across Britain at this time, and that people were travelling these sorts of distances in order to participate both in the building of the monument, which occurred in several phases, and in midwinter feasts. Some discussion ensued as to the logistics of driving animals these distances, and the time it would take.

As a chemist, I was particularly interested in the techniques used to establish these facts. For example, animal bones can be identified by inspection and it is clear that our Neolithic ancestors at Stonehenge were deriving meat from a variety of sources: cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. The distances travelled were established by analysing the ratios of strontium isotopes in their teeth by the technique of Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy. Strontium compounds, which mimic calcium compounds and therefore enter animals’ teeth, are present in the soil and enter the animals through the food chain. The particular ratios of strontium isotopes identified reflect the underlying geology where the animal once lived. As a chemist and, latterly a chemistry teacher, I was impressed by the clarity of the diagrams used to illustrate these points, and would have been delighted to have had this example and diagram illustrate this analytical technique (Fig 1).

Another point of interest for me was the fact that Neolithic people were lactose-intolerant, and had to turn milk into products such as cheese and yoghurt before consumption (Fig 2 below):

This reminded me of a particularly popular experiment I devised for Key Stage 3 Science students, where we used rennet to curdle milk to make junket. We flavoured the product with strawberries and were able to consume it afterwards, having taken appropriate H&S precautions during the preparation. Again, this would have been a useful illustration to have used at the time.

Preparation of yogourt

Earlier there was a visit to the inner bailey at Old Sarum.

Being only a mile from my home I am very familiar with this site. Nevertheless, some new things were brought to my attention, for example a ‘mason’s mark’ on a stone block in the east range of the courtyard house (Fig 3).

A question was asked and some discussion ensued about the little-known tunnel which once existed through the northern rampart, the site of which is still visible (Fig 4).

The English Heritage ‘Old Sarum’ guidebook tells us that this tunnel was first discovered in 1795. This discovery was recorded in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ of February 2nd, 1795. Following this, the tunnel was much visited by members of the public for several years before being re-sealed in 1822.

The tunnel was re-excavated in 1957 by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (now Department of the Environment) assisted by members of the archaeology section of the Salisbury and District Field Club, including Davids Algar, Sanders and Truckle, during which, among other things, examples of dated 18th Century obscene Anglo-Saxon graffiti were found.

Nobody is quite sure who built this tunnel, or for what reason. Its construction was apparently beyond the skills of Iron Age Man, but various people have speculated that it was built by the Romans or the Normans. One theory, which was also that espoused by our EH Guide during this visit, is that it was a ‘sally-port’ to enable an enemy force to be attacked from the rear or, if the city were besieged, to provide a means of escape from it.

A fuller description of this tunnel and the 1957 excavation can be found in The [Salisbury] Journal of 13th October, 1988, ‘’Old Sarum’s Secret Tunnel’ .

The second part of Shannan’s moving piece about the Terry Pratchett: HisWorld exhibition…

It’s hard to pick the stand out pieces in the exhibit because there were just too many. I was overjoyed to see Terry’s hat. Terry’s hat! There it was, in a glass case. I was centimetres from it. The recreation of his office was brilliant. I loved seeing the six computer monitors and the cat bed cut in to the desk. It was amazing to hear a woman gasp as she saw one of the crocheted Terry dolls she had made sitting on the bookshelf.

I marvelled at all of Paul Kidby’s paintings and drawings. What fascinated me most about seeing these artworks up close is just how much detail you can soak in. You can see every brush stroke, every pencil line, even the fibres in the canvas. I picked up so many details that I’ve never noticed before when looking at the prints in The Art of Discworld by Paul Kidby. I never noticed that Death was carrying kitten in his robe as he rode out with the other horsemen of the apocalypse. Another show stopper was the fact that some of these paintings were gigantic. Some took up entire walls. Again, when you’re only used to seeing them on pages of an art book or prints on a greeting card to see them in real life, in actual size, is mind boggling.

Pieces that pulled at the heart were the pieces that highlighted Terry’s plight with Alzheimer’s. The test sheets show how his ability to see, read, write and draw was deteriorating. Not far from these sheets was the destroyed hard drive that held unfinished Discworld novels. Personally, I was happy to read that it was destroyed in line with his wishes. It also meant that the Discworld is now complete. It’s nice to know that whatever stories Terry had planned are for him to keep. No other author is going to take those ideas and try to continue the series. Discworld without Terry is like a decadent cake without the chocolate ganache icing; and where’s the fun in eating that?

With Paul and Rob

It was the most amazing experience to meet Rob and Paul. They were so lovely and so generous of their time. Rob even offered me his seat so I could give Paul a closer look at my sleeve. They signed my museum book and the Granny Weatherwax notebook my mum bought me for my 30th birthday that I was using as my travel journal. I was also lucky to get a few photos.

I was at the museum from 10am and didn’t leave until well after 3pm. The exhibition was absolutely incredible and the whole team at Salisbury Museum are so lovely and really looked after me.

Salisbury Museum

View from Old Sarum

Stonehenge

Roman Baths at Bath

Wincanton

Tower Bridge London

After leaving Salisbury and a packed tour of brilliant museums in London, I joined a tour that took us through parts of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Wales. As much as I loved the tour I found there was too much time on the bus and not enough time exploring. So, I now think of the tour as a ‘taster’ and have made notes of places I’d like to visit again with more time. Most of all I loved the history and lush green landscape. The country towns were adorable and it was brilliant to be able to walk through them. I loved walking over the cobbled streets and seeing buildings that are older than Australia’s colonisation.

I had a wonderful time in the UK. I achieved more than I ever thought I would and the experiences I’ve had will never be forgotten. Some people say that you “find” yourself when you travel. I don’t think that I found myself but I did learn that even with the depression, the anxiety and OCD, I really can do anything and I can do it all by myself.

Record crowds for the opening of the Terry Pratchett: HisWorld exhibition.

“A different kind of audience” declared one observer. Meanwhile, Tristram Fane Saunders of the Telegraph wrote this on 16 September:

“Tolkien’s dead. JK Rowling said no. Philip Pullman couldn’t make it. Hi, I’m Terry Pratchett.” As self-deprecating introductions go, it’s a good one; Pratchett had it printed on a T-shirt for book events.

That shirt is currently on show at the Salisbury Museum, along with his hat, sword, paintings, typewriter, Blue Peter badge, computer hard drive (recently crushed by steamroller, in accordance with the late author’s wishes) and every part of his office that wasn’t nailed down. In an eerie touch that he would have relished, invisible fingers clack away at Pratchett’s keyboard; stand long enough, and you’ll see the first page of a novel write itself.

Assembling all of this joyous clutter is a triumph for Pratchett’s local museum, a Grade I listed gem not far from the Salisbury chalkland that inspired much of his finest writing.

After dealing with many many images from various photographers, one gets to know the style of the photographer. Austin Underwood always tries to get the Cathedral spire in the picture. Austin was a County Councillor for Amesbury and thus his photographs are often of items that would concern such a role. For example road signs, accidents, road works, buildings being demolished or built, traffic jams, protest marches, Amesbury social events. He was also a schoolmaster at BIshop Wordsworth School, so there is an almost complete record of the school activities whilst he was a master there. This record includes details of all the metalwork that the boys were taught. All the sporting events, concerts and plays are captured in his negatives including backstage scenes during hectic make-up for large casts. Another aspect which distinguishes an Austin photograph is his ability to climb adjacent structures in order to obtain an unusual view. On one occasion this included climbing a helter-skelter that was under construction in the Chipperfield’s funfair yard in the centre of Amesbury. This resulted in some very unusual aerial images of Amesbury town centre.

Wilfred Chaplin has a great sense of humour which shows in many of his photographs. He also liked wildlife and even made a trip wire to set off the shutter of his camera. In this way he captured badgers and birds on their nests. As he used glass plates, he took great care composing the scene before photographing it. One of his winning masterpieces was entitled “11:55”. It consisted of an elderly gentleman resting against a bollard by the St Ann Cathedral gate with the Kings Arms Inn in the background. The implication was that the gentleman was resting against the bollard waiting with five minutes still to go before opening time.

Some photographers always try to include people in the scene. Others wait and try and take scenes with no-one present. I have concluded that having people in the scene adds greatly to its interest.

The photographer has entitled the above image “Going Home”. The windows open imply the end of a hot summer’s day. No smoke from any of the chimneys. The TV aerials date the image as early 1960s. The gentleman is wheeling his three speed Sturmy-Archered hubbed bicycle home at the end of a tiring day. He has his tea urn on the handlebars. A cloth hat to protect him from the sun. You can almost feel the heat rising from the road surface. The houses don’t have many windows and have porches to protect their front doors from the weather, not a problem today. The road has cats-eyes and looks to me like the A338, just past Idmiston. But what really surprises me is that the photographer is Austin Underwood. This is definitely not his usual style.

Last week, a team of archaeologists led by Dr David Roberts of Historic England, and which included Members, Volunteers, Staff and friends of Salisbury Museum, were in the Wiltshire countryside on an exciting excavation. It is part of a project initiated by Dr Roberts as long ago as 2008 when he was still a student at the University of York, and digging has continued during most summers since then. The research is primarily into Roman remains in the area but much of the prehistory and early history has been exposed also.

Dr Roberts and colleagues in what may be a Roman sacred grove

The site is particularly intriguing. Extensive masonry walls have been found and buildings which are not domestic. Nevertheless, some detritus of everyday living has been found, including coins, brooches, and, this year, significant amounts of pottery.

One of the trenches, and above, the ridge, which is surrounded by earth and masonry walls

Within the walls which have been discovered, surrounding a high ridge, the remains of ritually killed animals (found in previous seasons’ excavations) suggest a sacred site of some kind, with many of the building remains perhaps being to serve visitors, and only in use for part of the year. Interpretation continues.

Apart from an impressive thunderstorm which caused a rapid evacuation of the site on one afternoon, the weather was kind. The professionals were endlessly patient with the amateurs, and the fresh air, exercise, and the history were wonderful.

This email has been received from Julie Davis, County Local Studies Librarian:

I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your support for a project which aims to locate, record and photograph public art, namely artwork made by an artist, arts practitioner or craftsperson and located in publicly accessible spaces and places in Wiltshire. At present very little is known about the whereabouts, extent and condition of public art in the county.

Data collected as part of the project will be made available in the Local Studies Library at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre with images deposited in the Historic Photograph and Print Collection. The images will then be pinned to the Know Your Place site http://www.kypwest.org.uk to map their location geographically. More details can be found at the link below.

This image here from the museums’s Austin Underwood collection is one such surprise. For many decades I have cycled many miles throughout the county and never seen Christmas-tree stooks like these. I did an image search on Google for stooks but I found none looking like these. On the far side of this field, there are the conventional stooks. These can still (2016) be seen and photographed in at least two places in Wiltshire where materials for thatching are grown. I do not know where Austin took this photograph.

There is a village beyond this field with its church tower, which is why I think it is a village. One of the village houses has a television aerial on the chimney stack. There are many telegraph poles; one with four arms and its array of white insulators for telephone lines as compared to power cables. I guess that this photograph was taken around 1963 and it shows quite a prosperous village to have so many telephone lines for that year. However the fields are small by today’s local standards and hence labour intensive and not so profitable. I cannot make out any farm animals in any of the fields, which might be due to the far fields being out of focus.

If you have ever seen stooks like this or can identify the village, I would love to know and would add the information to the Museum’s records for this image.

As most of you will already know, Alan looks after our photographic archive and provides endless gems like this one with thought-provoking commentary. Thank you as always Alan.

Last week, we reported on Dr Leary’s talk about his team’s work at Marden henge in the Vale of Pewsey. Just part of the work involves the study of the remains of the hill within the henge, called Hatfield Barrow, now flattened.

It had been excavated by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in the early nineteenth century, found to be largely empty, and when it collapsed into the excavation hole it was levelled by the farmer. The modern excavations of the remains show this mound was contemporary with Silbury, though smaller than, (the largest pre-historic mound in Europe), built circa BC 2 400. Dr Leary was sufficiently intrigued by this to consider an excavation of another, apparently similar, mound in the area, Marlborough Mound in the grounds of Marlborough School.

Legend has it that Marlborough Mound contained the bones of Merlin, and it certainly was the motte on which the Norman keep of Marlborough Castle was built around AD 1100. Was it older than this? With considerable support from the College itself, and from other agencies, Dr Leary was able to co-ordinate the extraction of cores from the mound which, with carbon dating by English Heritage, showed that the mound was also originally built c BC 2 400. Three such mounds in one small area!

Silbury – the largest of the three mounds mentioned here

For Jim Leary, this raised the question – what about the other mounds, scattered around the country, and most, like Marlborough, assumed to be Norman mottes?

He was able to do similar research on a number. The audience at the museum talk waited with bated breath as the slide with time-lines went up on the screen, to reveal….. No, all the mounds further investigated were, as originally thought, about one thousand years old, ie Norman. Except one. It wasn’t circa 5 000 years old, but Iron Age (just over two thousand years old). And the only known example in this country.

It is at Skipsea in Yorkshire. On the Continent these Iron Age hills were the wealthy ‘seats’ of nobility, always associated with enclosures which, in turn, always show, through finds, amazing cultural links with far-flung places. Does Skipsea have an enclosure? Oh yes……. it does. What a time to be in archaeology!

It does when it comes to henges, apparently. At another of the museum’s excellent talks last week, Dr Jim Leary spoke about his work over the last few years at Marden, in the Vale of Pewsey, and about the amazing discoveries there, with Reading University and Historic England (formerly English Heritage). Marden is described as Europe’s largest Neolithic henge, enclosing over 15.7 hectares, and an even larger one is probably waiting to be excavated at nearby Cat’s Brain (yes, really!), both beating Avebury for size.

Marden Henge, Vale of Pewsey

The Vale of Pewsey lies between Stonehenge and Avebury but is not part of the World Heritage Site. Nevertheless, it is as full of archaeological ‘goodies’ as anywhere else in Wiltshire. Perhaps even more so. Dr Leary explained that the relative lack of interest in the area is because, unlike the higher ground where Stonehenge and Avebury stand, the Vale has been ploughed continuously for thousands of years and any remains are less obvious.

As with Avebury , the ditch around the henge at Marden is on the inside, with a bank outside of that. The assumption is that this was to protect the people/audience/congregation from what was inside. Whatever that was! Like Avebury, and, indeed, Durrington, there is evidence of Neolithic buildings on the site before the banks and ditches were built. In this case, there is a rectangular building with a chalk floor where the archaeologists are even investigating the layer of dirt and dust which had accumulated on the floor when it was in everyday use. A PhD student is doing a thesis on what this dirt can tell us! There is evidence of burning in the area, the same signs of ceremonial feasting as at Durrington, and a midden.

The artifactual finds are of astonishing beauty (exquisite arrowheads) and possibly unique (pottery with a white ‘slip’ made from crushed bone, possibly human).

Thanks to Wiltshire Museum in Devizes and English Heritage for this photo. Wilts Museum has an on-going display of information and artifacts from this excavation

Inside the henge was a large conical mound known as the Hatfield Barrow (now levelled) and an inner henge. Hatfield barrow stood tall in the eighteenth century when it was mapped but was later ploughed out. It was likely to have been similar to Silbury. This had Dr Leary on a mission. How many other mounds in the area, in the country even, might have been built in Neolithic times? More on this next week.

The smaller henge has been excavated and shows evidence of huge holes which must have held timber, or possibly stone, at some early time, now completely gone. There is evidence of similar such holes at Stonehenge, marked in the carpark there.

What a time to be in archaeology. Scientific advances will allow that PhD student to do her research on a layer of dirt just a few millimetres thick. DNA and isotope analysis allow us to pinpoint dates and origins to a very exact degree. Dr Leary said that things were changing so fast he was never able to recycle his lectures to students anymore!

The excavations continue this year, having begun in 2015. After that will come the analysis of what has been found and the publications. If we want to visit the Marden site we are more than welcome. The team are there every day this summer except Fridays and the students of Reading University conduct guided tour for visitors. Go in the coming weeks or miss the chance! Click here for further details.

Well, it rained, but this did not dampen the happy atmosphere at the site. The site was on farmland at the back of Broad Chalke. This was my first visit and I was very impressed how big and well organised the whole festival was, with helpful, welcoming staff.

By 4.55pm the huge tent was packed, the talk being at 5pm.

Adrian gave a short talk on the Museum and then Alex began. He is impressive, not least because he does not try to be so. His delivery was casual with not a single note in sight. His vast knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject was self-evident. Images were projected onto a very large screen at the front of the tent which could be seen clearly by everyone. He began by outlining what most of us already knew about Old Sarum. How William I built a motte and bailey castle on site in 1067 and then in August 1086 called all the Tenants-in-chief and landowners of any account to swear fealty to him against all men. This was a “monumental occasion”, Alex said, and asked the question – did William pick Old Sarum for this purpose on an ordinary hill fort or was it already an important site in Anglo Saxon times? There is evidence to suggest that it was the latter. The Romans built five roads leading from Old Sarum. And in Anglo-Saxon times there was a cross roads leading to Mercia in the north, Wilton in the west, Winchester in the east and to the south the coast. It was, in fact, an ideal trading post and perhaps an administration centre?

He presented geophysical survey maps on screen which clearly showed evidence of activity beyond the moat on the Stratford-sub-Castle side. There was a lot going on, “..but what?” he asked. His team will be attempting to find out in the next three weeks of digging in this area. We all wait with bated breath for the result.

If you have not heard Alex Langlands speak, please make every effort to do so. You will not be disappointed. He will be at Salisbury Museum on 22 July speaking on the same subject!